


A Rose by Another Name

by starshades



Category: Noblesse (Manhwa)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-05
Updated: 2017-09-05
Packaged: 2018-12-24 07:35:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12008052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starshades/pseuds/starshades
Summary: “And I will show that nothing can happen more beautiful than death.” - Walt Whitman





	A Rose by Another Name

**Author's Note:**

> This is just some unedited, self-indulgent drabbles put into a story. Sorry for any mistakes here and there.  
> [Background on some things here.](http://star-shades.tumblr.com/post/165012052055/dave-yo-terezi-weve-got-a-grim-reaper-too-dave)

Seira J. Loyard stared at her reflection in the mirror. Then she leaned in to get a closer look. She was right - her pupils, usually the bright red of blood, were turning black. With a frown, she moved away from the sink and out of the bathroom.

Even as she walked back to her room she was planning - her usual plans would be vastly different if she decided to stay in Korea during this time. Of course, the easier option was to go back home, but the palace grounds were so silent, and she preferred the light quietness of her room in Korea as compared to the heavy silence of the same in Lukedonia.

Regis, as usual, quickly picked up on the subtle difference. A few days later, when they were talking about the four children (and what to cook for them this time), he broke off halfway through the conversation. Her charge gave a quick glance to the date shown on the television, then back at her eyes, then nodded to show that he knew what was going on.

“I forget how often that happens,” he commented, keeping his composure even though he knew what ‘that’ implied. “Are you going back to Lukedonia?”

Seira’s only answer was a shrug. Regis nodded and moved back to the topic of lunch.

* * *

A few days later, Seira found herself sitting on her bed, combing through snow-white and jet-black hair alike. Three knocks sounded on the door.

“Seira, it’s me,” came Regis’s voice from outside.  
“Come in.”

The door opened and shut quickly, and Regis settled on the chair adjacent to her bed. His eyes roved over the salt-and-pepper hair. His lips pressed flat together for a moment - he was not exactly pleased. Seira nodded in response.

“I might not go back to Lukedonia,” Seira admitted. “The condition is not exactly harmful, just shocking. Mostly in appearance.”  
“You’d have to explain it to the kids, though,” Regis frowned. “Unless you hide in here the entire day, but they have school on that day.”

The room fell quiet as Seira thought and Regis waited. He resisted the urge to fidget for a while, but gave up and started kicking his legs (he wasn’t in Lukedonia, after all, and it was just Seira). The only indication of Seira’s uncertainty was her red bottom lip as she bit it unconsciously. After a few minutes, the female noble spoke again.

“I will be staying, then.” At Regis’s incredulous look, she continued. “It only lasts a day - Sir Raizel would understand, and surely nothing much will happen then. The Union has been quiet for only a month.”

Regis’s head was tilted to the side and he stopped kicking. After a pause, he said, “If you say so. You know this best.”

* * *

The date was October 31st.

According to Tao, the high school students really got into the spirit of Halloween.

“It’s a western concept, but it’s gotten quite popular,” the man grinned. “I think they just took the chance to play dress-up and get a half day.”

And a half day they got, for Frankenstein learned long ago not to protest against the entire school community, especially when they were led by both the student council and Han Shinwoo. Almost all the students were dressed up in some way or another, and the few who stayed in uniform allowed their peers to paint their faces.

Regis and Raizel were early, they always were, and Regis was surprised to see the students dressed up as witches, cats, and other such characters. An amused Tao explained calmly to the noble that those who dressed up as 'vampires’ didn’t really know what they meant (they were merely human, after all), and there was no need to be disgusted. If Raizel was confused, he didn’t show it, and continued staring out the classroom window as always.

An idea struck Regis. He quickly asked Tao for his cellphone and dialled Frankenstein’s home number.

(Technically, his home number for now, but it was still a bit weird to think of it as such.)

“Hello?”  
“Seira, you know how some places of this world celebrate today?”  
“…they do?”  
“It’s sort of weird, but Tao says that they don’t really know what happens, or think of it as a myth.”  
Seira merely replied with a hum. Regis decided to move on to his reason for calling.  
“If you come today, and ask the girls to help you - say you already changed into some things and need help for dressing up.”  
“They dress up in celebration?”

Tao, even though he didn’t know what was going on (and why Seira even stayed at home in the first place), decided to take over.

“They dress up because it started from tricking spirits from taking them as they looked like someone else,” he explained.

Silence on the other side. The guard knew well the noble well enough to take it as agreement, and passed the phone back.

“Hey, I need to go for duty soon, yeah?”  
“Alright,” Regis said.

“…wait a few minutes,” Seira’s voice came over the phone, and the call ended.

With a confused look, but which quickly turned into a barely-restrained grin, Regis handed the phone back to Tao.

—

“Whoo!”  
“Seira, you look great!”  
“Hey, Regis, why aren’t you dressed up?”  
“Nothing has enough class,” Regis sniffed. “Maybe next time.”  
“We might not even have a next time!” Shinwoo moaned. “The student council head’s leaving next year!”  
“You could just ask next year’s head of student council,” Regis shot back.  
“Yeah, but this one’s fierce. I’m actually scared of her.”  
Ikhan shook his head, holding back his laugh as Regis gave Shinwoo the most judgemental stare he could muster.

Seira definitely looked her part as, coincidentally, the Grim Reaper. Her pale skin was offset by an oversized black hooded robe. Having come from Suyi, the robe looked more like a gauzy floor-length dress instead of the cheap Halloween costumes made of satin or fake velveteen. The scythe she held was a store prop, but the black handle and white plastic blade fit well enough.  
The most shocking part to everyone but Regis, Raizel and Seira herself was her appearance under the robe. Her long white hair was now so black that it gleamed purple under the white fluorescent lights, the pupils of her eyes of a similar colour - the centre could not be seen. Her skin was now nearly bone white, making her eyes look even more unnatural.

“Not bad, right?” Suyi grinned. “They’re from the most recent shoot. She doesn’t even need the mask I brought over, she fits this role perfectly!”  
“…I wouldn’t be able to tell who she’s supposed to be without the scythe,” Ikhan muttered. Shinwoo nodded in agreement.  
“That’s because she doesn’t have the mask!” Yuna quickly tried to rectify her friend’s statement.  
“It’s not even the proper mask, that’s a blank mask from the opposite store!”

Regis only raised an eyebrow at Seira’s costume, and Seira gave no response as she sat down in her seat.

* * *

The smell of roses wafted through her room as the head of the Loyard family leaned against the headboard of her bed. She was still in the black dress - the soft material actually felt rather nice. An alert, something related to a disturbance at the construction site at the outskirts of Seoul, went out a few minutes earlier, so now she was alone in the house.

(Well, except from the Noblesse himself. Frankenstein demanded he rest as much as possible, and he probably wouldn’t be needed anyway, just rest, please.)

The light of the full moon streamed into her room. Seira made a point to stay away from the window.

She could hear _them_ \- could hear the screams of souls not avenged, those who were unfairly killed and those who were. She could see _them_ \- black, purple wraiths not unlike a dark haze lingering near the ground outside. Weirdly, they did stay away from the few dressed-up students who were still outside at half-past eight. She could feel _them_ \- the tugging under her skin, of something yearning to burst out of her and kill de _stroy remo ~~ve eliminate~~_

The noble sucked in a deep breath and pressed her hands into fists, nails digging into her palm. The urging ebbed away, but not fully. Should she repot another rose bush? Seira considered it for a while, then decided not to. The pots would be in the living room instead of hers if she kept it up.

Then a pain in her head brought her head to the mattress - and the telepathic message for help struck in her head.

* * *

Regis wasn’t sure if he could hold up much longer.

The mutants only got stronger as time went on - they glowed with an uneasy ultraviolet energy that made shivers run up Regis’s spine, and some of them called up more wraiths to attack them with.

His energy shield was the only thing between him and the mass of mutants from the Union that were in front of him. They struck the shield over and over again with unrelenting, unnerving energy. The entire group could sense it - the energy that radiated from them was dark and full of pain and sorrow, and the worst part was that it felt very much like the trial version of Frankenstein’s powers. It acted like it, too. They drained the energy from him as he held his defence, and the wounds they managed to tattoo on him weren’t healing as fast as they were supposed to.

The original RK team were already drawing from the power they borrowed from Frankenstein and they were barely holding on, quickly overwhelmed by the sheer number against them. Rael and Karias were tag-teaming - one sniping from a distance and taking down mutants and wraiths one by one, the other moving too fast for most of the enemy to hit as he slit them into pieces. But the wraiths blocked their vision, and their masses confused the eyes between who were the summoners and who were the summoned. Frankenstein was not doing too well himself. A group of mutants decided to gang up on him and he was now rendered unable to help his side lest he run into the chance of dying. As it were, he was verging onto overloading with power in order to take down the group, but was holding back for obvious reasons.

Unearthly black, purple haze suddenly rushed up from the ground and down upon the group as they held defence. Purple and black bolts not unlike those of Frankenstein’s rained upon them and drew blood as they made sickening black marks like rot upon wherever they touched. They drained energy from the beings they contacted, and Regis felt his shield growing weaker and weaker and his legs buckling under his weight as the souls rained upon them screaming curses in his ears.

 _Help!_ Regis cried out to Seira. They needed backup, and he knew Seira would cast aside her worries despite what was going on to help no matter what. Minutes passed, and he felt doubt creeping in as he mustered the strength to kill off the wraiths surrounding him. Strike after strike only thinned the crowd, and not by much even as he and Rael went through the unholy masses.

Then he was struck to the ground, and suddenly the sky turned black.

 _This is the end,_ Regis thought. Then instantly after that, _Wait, I can still see, is-_

The wraiths were pulled up as if dragged by the neck, and he looked up to see them swirling around and blocking the moonlight. Glowing, ultraviolet eyes stood out from the darkness, and long jet-black hair floated around the figure like snakes.

Seira J. Loyard held out her left hand and spoke a single word;  
“Thanatos.”

 

The wraiths converged like fire ants into her hand, forming a scythe not unlike her Death Scythe. But this one was larger, and it was pitch black as if it were sucking up the light around it. The gold embellishments were now a bright white, radiating an ultraviolet glow.

It was as if she froze time - everyone stopped fighting to look at her with shock. The mutants started growling threats, half of the summoners moving towards her with hatred in their eyes.

Frankenstein’s face contorted in pain, then suddenly became one of understanding. Fear shot down Regis’s spine the instant the scientist smirked.

A rain of Dark Spears immediately came upon the still-frozen mutants, halving their size and sending everyone moving again.

“Tired, already?” He shouted with glee.

The mutants rushed the RK, coming upon them with wraiths and hands and spears and swords gleaming with dark energy.

“Keres.” Seira’s voice was calm amongst the chaos yet Regis heard it crystal clear. The wraiths that were attacking fell to the ground screaming and clutching their heads, then suddenly glared at their summoners with glowing white eyes.

“What the-” A mutant summoner stepped back, eyes wide and hands up as if he could block the ghosts. “No, my control, wha-”

The haze of wraiths screeched, sending ears ringing, and they rushed at the mutants.

RK snapped back into action - courage and strength and adrenaline rushing into them with the knowledge of reinforcement, even though they did not truly understand what was going on. The original three knights leaped first, electricity sparking from bullets and wires and electrocuting their enemies even as claws ripped them apart. The nobles went next, with arrows accompanying the wraiths raining upon the sheer crowd of mutants and blades punching holes and slicing lines. The Dark Spear drew wraiths around it, increasing in power and size as her wielder taunted and killed and drew the health away from them.

And as they ripped apart the crowd, Seira lived up to her family’s role and reaped those who came at her. Her blade came down on the mutants, cutting through necks and bodies and splitting people in half. Wraiths came at her beck and call, sweeping around her and down to the crowds further away.

As Seira called upon her Reaper, black-and-gold dress wrapping around her with the wind and the light of the full moon falling upon her back, the nobles present realised the same thing that Frankenstein knew minutes earlier.

The date was October 31st.

* * *

 

The wraiths dissipated into the ground as the last mutant hit the ground. M-21, Takeo and Tao winced at the coppery smell that invaded their noses; they could never get used to the smell of death. After all, they were still only human at the core. The nobles rested on their knees as they caught their breath. Frankenstein stretched leisurely and glanced at the Loyard with veiled curiosity. Seira was lying on the ground on her side, panting heavily as her eyes remained closed. Her scythe was still beside her, gleaming in moonlight.

Frankenstein’s and Tao’s phones beeped, and they saw it was midnight. The black of Seira’s hair and eyes started to drain of colour. The original white of her hair came back from the roots and flowed down to the ends. Her eyes slowly became bright red again, and colour started coming back into her skin. The scythe turned from shadows into the usual shining black metal, the ultraviolet glow ebbing away to become gold once more.

Seira let out a breath, and sat up clutching her head. The pain on her face was obvious - an unusual sight for anyone who knew the usually expressionless noble.

 

Regis spoke up.

“Are you okay?”

 

She merely replied with a hum.


End file.
